U.S. drillers have the ability to double the country’s oil production to 20 million barrels a day, but doing so too soon would tank oil prices, Continental Resources CEO Harold Hamm said Thursday.

Hamm, who made his fortune by pioneering new drilling methods in North Dakota’s Bakken Formation, did not offer a timeline for when this would be possible, but it would certainly be a difficult task. Surging U.S. production since 2008 was largely responsible for creating a global oversupply of oil that sent prices spiraling from more than $100 a barrel to $26 this past winter.

The billionaire oilman and energy advisor to President-elect Donald Trump acknowledged the difficulty of such a renewed boom in oil production.

“We could take it from 10 [million barrels a day] to 20 [million]. The key here is not to get too much production coming back in — oversupply the market — or prices collapse and that’s not a good deal for everybody,” Hamm told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.”

“We have that potential in this country. That’s what’s available here. It needs to be done in a very systematic way,” he said.

U.S. crude oil production hit a multidecade peak of 9.6 million barrels a day in April 2015, roughly doubling from 2008 levels near 5 million barrels a day. That output has since slid back to about 8.6 million barrels a day as U.S. drillers defer new projects amid the price slump.

On Wednesday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia agreed to limit production to boost prices. Many analysts say they must be careful not to let oil prices rise and stay above $55 a barrel, or else producers of high-cost U.S. crude could increase their output and upset the quest to balance the market.

So all we need do is get the high oil prices back and drill 2.3X as many shale wells as we poked during the production surge. Of course that means keeping oil prices at record highs for 10 years at a minimum. Also assumes we have 2.3X as many high quality undrilled locations as were drilled during the boom.

America can commit suicide too, like most civilizations of the past (the rest were murdered) – “In other words, a society does not ever die ‘from natural causes’, but always dies from suicide or murder — and nearly always from the former, as this chapter has shown.” – A Study of History, by Arnold J. Toynbee

But a visit to the shrink would be a better solution for a cultural disease it would seem.

Bob Inget on Sat, 3rd Dec 2016 1:26 pm

HH dropped nine Billion in the oil bust. Then≥.
His ex made off with 975 million .

WE here at PO need to take up a collection for good ole boy Hamm. BTW he just rejected Trump’s offer for Sec of Energy. Instead, Donald is waving Sec of State job in front of Exxon boss
Rex Tillerson . In any case, you can bet BO, not PO will be well represented.

Outcast_Searcher on Sat, 3rd Dec 2016 1:47 pm

There is an irony here. With the coming wave of PHEV’s, and then EV’s, we no longer need to.

If this means we have a cushion for the falling production the doomers keep insisting we’ll see any month now, that’s great.

Just with PHEV’s, we can cut transpo fuel demand tremendously, and realtively cleanly, as solar and wind continue to ramp up golbally.

I’m amused at how much the super-greens hate on PHEV. With PHEV we can cut the gasoline/diesel mileage for the private auto TREMENDOUSLY, with little financial strain, given the financial life cycle costs of the vehicles now or very soon on the market.

For several thousand dollars, the Toyota Prius Prime, which just sold nearly 800 units in its first (partial) month of sales (breaking the EV first month volume record), can eliminate 25 gasoline miles a trip for the life of the car, for every time it can be plugged in for several hours.

Given the durability of the Prius line, it’s not hard to get that to pay for itself multiple times, even without the $4500 federal tax credit the car will enjoy the first few years or so.

For me, I estimate this would change my gasoline mileage from roughly 4000 a year (I try to live with a sane carbon footprint) to roughly 200 miles a year, or a 95% savings in gas. With NO need to plug in anywhere except at home.

For the average driver, Toyota estimates that the 25 mile range covers roughly half of peoples’ commutes. It certainly covers more than that for local errands, etc. It charges on a 120V plug in about 5.5 hours. On a 240V plug in about 2 hours. Oh, and even if you are in gas mode it gets EPA rated 54 mpg combined.

So the small, efficient space looks very promising already. This is with current 8.8 KW LI ION battery technology, which Toyota states is designed to last the life of the car.

Now, on the other end of the scale (full sized minivan), we have the Chrysler Pacifica. This can move 7 people, lots of cargo, etc. It has a 30 mile EPA estimated pure EV range and a 16 KW LI ION battery.

It starts at $42,000, getting the full $7500 federal credit for now. Chrysler is questionable at quality, but the key is that if people want this — quality makers can do this with current technology for a “large car”.

This isn’t as clearly financially a “done deal” as the small segment, but it’s encouraging given that it’s still early days with the battery technology.

Now all we need is the will (or political guts to use a carbon tax) to get people to wake up and take advantage of this technology as it becomes more capable.

Let’s leave more oil in the ground and do something more productive and safer with our financial resources.

dave thompson on Sat, 3rd Dec 2016 2:22 pm

This guy Hamm is certainly full of himself.

Anonymous on Sat, 3rd Dec 2016 2:37 pm

I think he should run for president in 2020! Make amerika great(er) again.

I suggest Hamm pick Kevin Bacon as his running mate.

Mmmmm Hamm and Kevin Bacon….thats the ticket.

eugene on Sat, 3rd Dec 2016 4:15 pm

I came to believe, long ago, that bullshit is the grease upon which the world turns.

Rockman on Sat, 3rd Dec 2016 4:31 pm

Dave – “This guy Hamm is certainly full of himself.” But he’s supposed to be: he runs a public company. Seriously…that is part of his job description. Federal law requires that he conduct himself in a manner that benefits his shareholders…and not the rest of the US citizens. Just as long as he doesn’t violate SEC regs.

“Over the past two years, more than a dozen Securities and Exchange employees and contractors have tried to view pornography on government computers at least 8,273 times. Here’s what they were looking at while the global financial system cratered.”

Or how about this

“The SEC “polices the broken windows on the street level and rarely goes to the penthouse floors,” James Kidney, who joined the SEC in 1986 and spent most of his career there, said in the prepared remarks.

“On the rare occasions when Enforcement does go to the penthouse, good manners are paramount,” he said. “Tough enforcement – risky enforcement – is subject to extensive negotiation and weakening.”

Even if your ‘SEC’ cared about enforcing the ‘law'(it doesn’t and they dont), they are chronically understaffed and underfunded for the role they are supposedly tasked with. No wonder they surf porn all day as opposed to actually, you know, working. The SEC is a ‘window’ dressing agency. Not a serious attempt to ‘regulate’ the rigged casino that is amerikan ‘capitalism’.

Yes, rocky, the uS oil cartel is fully staffed by individuals that obey both the letter and spirit of the ‘law’. Why wouldn’t they? They bought the politicians, and then the oil companies drafted the ‘laws’ they so scrupulously ‘obey’.

This fantasy-island version of the law-abiding uS oily corporate citizens you keep trying to peddle is cute. In same way, say, stories written for 6 years are.

Davy on Sat, 3rd Dec 2016 5:21 pm

Boy wonder have you ever peeked at some porn? Try it some time you might like it. I think you are being too hard on the boys.

Speaking of Trump; USA just elected a wrestlemania character lol fucking retards.

rockman on Sun, 4th Dec 2016 12:16 am

And is his company doing these days: And an update on how the Hamboy’s company is doing these days:

“For the third quarter, Continental said its net production was about 5 percent lower than the second quarter and 9 percent lower year-on-year. Most of the decline came from North Dakota. Continental reported a net loss of $109.6 million, a loss that’s 33 percent greater than the loss from third quarter 2015. In August, the company sold off some of its assets in and around the Bakken area for about $600 million in a move Hamm said helped reduce debt and strengthen the balance sheet.”

Selling $600 million in oil production in depressed market: a sign of desperation that doesn’t match his proclaimed optimism of future oil prices.

peakyeast on Sun, 4th Dec 2016 4:54 am

lol.. USA can increase its production 10 times…. But for how long?

Its like the PC speakers commercials. A tiny transformer and capacitor – but the power is 3000Watts – more than you can pull from the plug without burning everything…

When you then read the technical details it can give 3000W for 1 uS.. LOL…

makati1 on Sun, 4th Dec 2016 6:19 am

Peaky, I doubt the U$ can increase its oil production by 10%. Certainly not 100%. But let’s pop the cap on a brewski, munch a few pretzels, and watch the suckers swarm to throw what money they have left at the promises. There are going to be a lot of people jumping out of their 20 story windows one of these days. Splat!

mx on Sun, 4th Dec 2016 7:20 am

Capitalism, making smart people stupid since Adam Smith.

When your only measure of value is profit, you’re an idiot.

mx on Sun, 4th Dec 2016 7:23 am

Well, if you look at our Casino’s you’ll see the Trump demographic. 40-80 year old middle class, and working class people losing their paycheck to someone like Trump.

And these places are crowded.

The LOSERS voted for the guy they know is rich, because they hand over their checks to him every week.

The rest of us know Trump has been bankrupt 4 times and bailed out by Daddy, and is an idiot business person.

The LOSERS out number the smart people.

twocats on Sun, 4th Dec 2016 7:33 am

Well, other than that one little line about doubling from 10 to 20 mbd it doesn’t change his overall message which is correct. oil prices have been ravaged for two years but enough US oil companies are in play to easily ramp production back up. It’s really hard to see peak oil before 2020 at this point. Whether the overall cost of oil at $60/barrel going forward will be too great a drag on the economy, who can say. But really that will just hurt those at the bottom anyway. For those with “f u” money, its almost certainly another four to six years of easy living.

twocats on Sun, 4th Dec 2016 7:36 am

correct: *peak “all things liquid that contain some stored energy which can more or less fool the globe into thinking we are not on the backside of civilization and keep the party going”

joe on Sun, 4th Dec 2016 8:13 am

The SEC only has authority in movies. They dont actually bust in doors and demand to see companies real books (if such things even existed). The real evil in all this is how we never say a word about the big accounting firms role in the shit storms that get created, Arthur Anderson signed off the books of Enron every year until they went bust. Very little has changed since then and Trump is promising to deregulate even that small amount. Billionaires are jizzing themselves at the thought of a Trump presidency. Theres nothing left to privatise except in Europe and Asia. One thing is for sure, in 4 years from now it will be a VERY different world.
“Hang the lawyers and accounts!”

Davy on Sun, 4th Dec 2016 8:26 am

“Billionaires are jizzing themselves at the thought of a Trump presidency.” Sure Joe, tell that to Buffet, Soros, Gates, Zuckerberg, Slim, Bezos, Bloomberg, and Page….to name a few of the larger ones.
If there is one thing you fail to understand about Billionaires Joe and that is the difference between money and power. These folks bet on Hillary and got a black eye that was a loss of power and influence. You also fail to see the disruptive effects of nationalistic polices of Trump. Putin, and Brexit and those threats to the global status quo. These billionaires stand to lose considerable freedom of movement with nationalistic policies. Deregulation will be of little importance in relation to these disruptive polices. You also fail to see real deregulation will have to go through congress and through the gauntlet of special interests both right and left.

I can’t wait till it dawns on the baby boom generation that Trump-Ryan are going to “enhance” destroy their Social Security and Medicare.

Vouchers: Translation: We stop paying the Full Bill, Hospitals Raise their Prices, and the Working Class guy goes BANKRUPT on his first illness.

The democratic party, in my lifetime has been the ONLY party to support and protect Social Security and Medicare. So, how where these idiots fooled?

350,000,000 muslims to INVADE America.
They, mostly rural voters, who’ve never seen a muslim, actually believed that the US could be overrun by a population the Size of the US population.

America is in a crisis of STUPID. We do need better schools. And mandatory education for the Baby Boom generation.

denial on Sun, 4th Dec 2016 12:45 pm

be careful the trumpanzees will be out and about soon! Remember Bannon is right of the mold of propaganda specialist using the internet soon there will be sedition laws to keep you from saying the above mx!

Trump want no foreign oil imports. Frackers want to pick up the slack. Frackers and oil sands development will require 100.00 a barrel, they don’t care as long as they don’t go bankrupt. Meanwhile anything over 80.00 barrel will start a recession. This will happen if Trump succeeds in building a wall around foreign oil.